we have more now on those fiscal cliff talks today between president obama and house speaker john boehner. emily schmidt is in washington. >> reporter: it this been 23 days since president obama and house speaker john boehner met face to face to talk about how to avert it. that's until they met this afternoon. this was a surprise meeting. nobody spotted boehner coming or going. nobody is saying much beyond two statements, one from the white house, from one boehner's office. the wording here is identical, ening with this, the lines of communication remain open. the two men last spoke by phone on wednesday. ontry, mr. boehner said the white house had wasted another week for potential compromise. we don't know what prompted this meeting, just that for the first time in a while, the two sides are agreeing on something even if it's just the wording of their statements and keeping tight lipped about what was said. don? >> emily, thank you very much. >>> in today's meetings between president obama and speaker boehner, is it a sign we're close to a fiscal cliff deal? i asked cnn senior political